Base your votes on known reliability, fuel mileage, power, comfort, appearance, capability and any other attribute that would make a better light duty truck. I would appreciate it for this thread to stay free of bashing any certain brand. But mentioning any information on certain unreliable parts of any vehicle mentioned here is welcome.

This is for 2000+ DIESELS ONLY.

Thanks!!!

2000+ Dodge - Cummins
2000+ GM - Duramax
2000+ Ford - Powerstroke

GMC Sierra/Chevy Silverado FTW!! They are sooooo ubelieveably comfy. I really want one. My boss has one and it rocks

GMC/Chevy ftw. Not just for comfort, but for its reliability and quality. I would usually say Cummins Dodge, but the interiors aren't that impressive in the 00+ until 03? when the new design came out.

I am gonna have to go with IZUZU......umm...I mean chevy/GMC

Hmm.... Contrary to the votes thus far, I'm going with Dodge and Cummings.

A close friend of the family is on his second diesel. The first was a 1999 Dodge. In 2005 he traded it in with 235,000 miles. The only thing to EVER have gone wrong on that truck was the brakes. He absolutely loved it and abused it. Seriously abused it and it just kept on taking a licking.

He now has a 2005 GMC 4 door, 8 foot bed with a diesel. Has about 80,000 miles and it'* the biggest POS. Transmission has already gone out on it, leather seat heater failed, and has TWIICE left him stranded on the side of the expressway. The incidents on the side of the expressway were repeat electrical issues with the fuel injection system. Dealer took two days each time to fix it. Plus, it lacks a considerable amount of power over the Dodge.

So, if you ask me (him, actually), go with the Dodge.

Its pretty well known the 98+ cummins motor is more relialbe than any ford/chevy.

500,000 miles is not uncommon on the orginal motor.


Chevy Diesels have problematic injection pumps, transmissions, and other electrical issues regarding the injection system.

and turn into Monster with something like a Bully Dog Power programmer

I'm sorry, but I have to go with the F250. That King Ranch edition is just freaking AWESOME.

my roomaete has a cummins I am not a truck person so I have no real input

As a Fleet Maintenance Coordinator for a regional ambulance service I can offer my opinion on the Ford diesel. We have a fleet which includes several of the 6.0L Power Stroke Turbo Diesel engines (2003-2006) and they have given us nothing but grief. Being that we communicate with numerous other ambulances who run the same engine, I can't even say we got one or two bad vehicles. These are a constant problem. Since updating our fleet to newer vehicles (from 7.3L trucks), our maintenance budget has increased 50%. I can't quote percentages for down time off the top of my head, but these are also significantly increased.

Understanding that ambulances are driven hard, what I can tell you is that we never had this many problems with the 7.3L Turbo Diesel. Since our region and operating practices haven't changed to any great extent I can only conclude that the new element here is the 6.0L engine. I have heard similar complaints from allied emergency workers who have purchased the Ford 6.0L Diesel as a personal vehicle.

Another consideration, and one reason we are going to trial a gasoline ambulance is the availability of diesel technicians. A portion of our down time increase is simply due to the number of mechanics qualified to work on these engines. I'm not sure if this is a problem in the US, but in Alberta we are experiencing a massive labour shortage in virtually every industry. From the research that we've conducted, this doesn't seem limited to just Ford.

Amongst our top list of complaints:

- Constant cooling system problems (We have complied with all TSB'*).
- Regular fuel leaks.
- A multitiude of A/C problems.
- Performance problems (usually starting about 100,000km) which no dealership has been able to properly troubleshoot or correct.

Personally, I'm a GM fan. We have started converting to ambulances running the DuraMax Diesel engine. Some of our regional partners have been using these for some time and absolutely love them.